There are many comments regarding procs with HD video with 1080p support. Unfortunately, most of these do not come with DTS-MA or Dolby TrueHD capability. A true multimedia box should have these capabilities and more. Take a good look at Sigma proc based multimedia players like the Popcorn Hour and you'll know what I mean.

I'm not sure if this is available in the States, but Samsung's Bada would probably be one of the most secure mobile OS at the moment. There are no exploits out in the wild and no way to root it unless you actually flash the firmware.

More information on security is available via this developer link.

What's so relieving about:


Due to increased costs of components and materials, HDD prices are likely to rise 30-40% from the level before the floods by the end of 2012, the sources indicated.

-- FTFA

I wonder why Sigma-based network media tanks like the Popcorn Hour C-300 are not included. Is it because it supports [gasp!] "pirate-friendly" codecs and region-free coding? Or is it because these types of media players have far better picture and audio quality?

Try Samsung's Bada (also linux-based), it can be found on the Samsung Wave line-up of phones. Nothing stored in the cloud at all and has a great UI (looks like a bastard son of iOS and Android).

I fully expect a Cyanogenmod port for this within the coming weeks. I'll buy one as soon as a stable release is out.

Given the fact that they would need to dredge deep oceans to mine rare earths, the potential environmental damage to marine ecosystems (that are not even fully understood) will probably be not worth any amount of mineral yield.

Microsoft is heavily invested into Facebook, so we can't expect Zuck and the gang to join any joint ventures to provide a Skype alternative.

Remove any and all security and privacy settings on social networks. Only then will you get the desired coverage and not limit users to "within their existing friend groups."

In Asia (with the exception of Japan and South Korea), Blu-ray is way behind DVD's for the simple reason that there are no pirated blu-ray discs for sale out on every street corner. Pirated DVD's are quite ubiquitous and have been improving substantially in quality, due mainly to the various leaked screeners prior to a film's release.

DVD9's that contain HD content are starting to gain traction, however.

In the case of online media, there is also hardly any access to good streaming HD content in Asia due to region-specific policies.